President Obama and Statistical Imbalances

Assume for the moment that President Obama's now oft-cited, but deeply disingenuous claim that "We've got 2 percent of the world oil reserves. We use 20 percent, is accurate." Assume as well that his expressed incredulity at this disparity is real. Wouldn't it then follow -- if the President is indeed the complex thinker and cool, dispassionate analyst that his supporters constantly insist that he is -- that he would take similar umbrage against all such imbalances between the production and allocation of valuable resources?Yet when it comes to taxes, as we have learned, Obama is unmoved by such facts as that the much-maligned top 1% of income producers pay nearly 37% of total income taxes his administration collects, that nearly 50% of Americans pay no income tax whatsoever, and that more than 60% of Americans receive more in government benefits than they pay in all taxes combined.

Far from being offended by these structural inequalities, the President insists that "the rich" (defined as those who make more than $200,000 annually -- regardless of how or where they live) don't pay their "fair share" of taxes. But aside from his endorsement of the so-called "Buffet Rule" that stipulates those earning more than a million dollars annually should pay at least 30% of that income in income tax, and support for raising the top marginal rate to 39.6% for those making over $200,000 per year -- and in the process, incidentally, raising taxes on virtually all of the remaining 51% who actually pay income taxes under current law -- Obama never really defines what in his view would ultimately constitute a "fair" tax burden for the American people.

While it is hard to know where to start when attempting to pin down this president in his many dubious claims and inconsistencies, at the very least in this election year, voters should force him to answer this simple question: "If 20% of the world's energy is too much for the world's largest economy to consume, then how much is too much for a government to extract from its most productive citizens?"

Assume for the moment that President Obama's now oft-cited, but deeply disingenuous claim that "We've got 2 percent of the world oil reserves. We use 20 percent, is accurate." Assume as well that his expressed incredulity at this disparity is real. Wouldn't it then follow -- if the President is indeed the complex thinker and cool, dispassionate analyst that his supporters constantly insist that he is -- that he would take similar umbrage against all such imbalances between the production and allocation of valuable resources?

Yet when it comes to taxes, as we have learned, Obama is unmoved by such facts as that the much-maligned top 1% of income producers pay nearly 37% of total income taxes his administration collects, that nearly 50% of Americans pay no income tax whatsoever, and that more than 60% of Americans receive more in government benefits than they pay in all taxes combined.

Far from being offended by these structural inequalities, the President insists that "the rich" (defined as those who make more than $200,000 annually -- regardless of how or where they live) don't pay their "fair share" of taxes. But aside from his endorsement of the so-called "Buffet Rule" that stipulates those earning more than a million dollars annually should pay at least 30% of that income in income tax, and support for raising the top marginal rate to 39.6% for those making over $200,000 per year -- and in the process, incidentally, raising taxes on virtually all of the remaining 51% who actually pay income taxes under current law -- Obama never really defines what in his view would ultimately constitute a "fair" tax burden for the American people.

While it is hard to know where to start when attempting to pin down this president in his many dubious claims and inconsistencies, at the very least in this election year, voters should force him to answer this simple question: "If 20% of the world's energy is too much for the world's largest economy to consume, then how much is too much for a government to extract from its most productive citizens?"